med chapter 1 rough draft

8/3/2019 MEd Chapter 1 Rough Draft

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Matthew KisselChapter 1: Artifact Analysis

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Introduction

While observing classes I naturally tend to focus on the teachers method of

classroom management. Classroom management is the putting of teaching. When

people think of golf they think of guys with thick clubs hitting golf balls very far away,

they do not know that putting is actually eighty percent of the game and therefore a more

accurate picture of what golf is. Likewise, when we think of teaching we think of a

person lecturing in front of a class (search for teacher on Google Images and most of

the pictures will show something like this) while for many teachers classroom

management is most of what they do.

I did not, however, just go around taking photographs of posters of classroom

rules or record teachers getting students quiet to start the class. As I observed class

sessions I noticed how student assumptions about the class, individual attitudes and

outside influence seemed to be setting the scene that the teacher would often have to

adapt their behavior management techniques to. Classroom management is part of a

larger picture. What we often use that term to describe has to do with intentional, direct

manipulation by the teacher of the classroom culture. In order to really understand

classroom management techniques and be able to adapt them to individual classrooms

and assess their effects it helps to be aware of the classroom culture that one is trying to

manipulate. If a teacher tries a method of classroom management without being aware of

the classroom culture it is impossible for her to know what the real effects of her strategy

are. A teacher might be at a school where the student assumptions about class conduct

are to walk into the classroom and wait for the teacher to tell them what to do, she

assumes, however, that her seating chart and strict demeanor (her main strategies) are


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successful in bringing about desired student behavior. She is then confused six months

later when she discusses classroom management strategy with a teacher whose students

wait for his input when they get to class, yet he has a friendly demeanor and lets students

chose where they want to sit. In order to have a fuller picture of the variables influencing

their interactions with their students teachers need to be aware of the varying affects

classroom culture can have when trying to isolate what techniques are effective for what

they want.

For the purposes of this document classroom culture means the interactions

between all persons in the classroom. It is influenced by interactions, student-to-student,

student-to-teacher and teacher to student as well as the classroom setting (decorations,

desk placement, outfits people wear, etc.). Because classroom management techniques

are intentional teacher-to-student interactions and ways teacher intentionally set up their

classrooms they are both attempts to manipulate classroom culture and a part of the

classroom culture.

Because of this my artifacts represent not only a teachers management

techniques, but classroom decorations that may influence the mood of the class, student

interactions, as well as documentation that explain certain outside elements that may be

affecting the behavior of certain students. This is an important distinction because

humans can be unaware of what is influencing them. If teachers can somehow control all

of the input that affects the behavior of the students in their class they would not need to

work so hard on direct management techniques, unfortunately this may be impossible, but

teachers could lessen the need for direct management techniques by setting up their

classroom in clever ways that affect student behavior. While I know that teachers have


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no control over the out-of-class elements that affect student behavior it helps to be aware

of them so that teachers can adapt their teaching style to the needs of individual students

or address it in how they control the input going into the students in their class.

I have classified my artifacts into two categories: the first is direct attempts at

communicating desired norms, rules or procedures to students (seating charts, posters

with rules on them, recordings of techniques teachers use to quiet their class), the second

is indirect attempts at those things (classroom decorations, teacher tone of voice, student

relationships). Within these categories the artifacts can be labeled either a student

contribution or a teacher contribution. A student contribution would be an artifact

representing classroom culture that is generated by a student or group of students, a

teacher contribution is generated by the teacher. Obviously all of the artifacts in the first

category will be labeled teacher contributions. I attempted to divide the second category

into intentional and unintentional artifacts but, while obvious examples could in theory be

found, in many cases there is too much ambiguity to tell if something is intentional or

not.

Description of Artifacts by Category

The following are artifacts that relate directly to classroom control or setting

classroom norms. By this I mean they are direct attempts at communicating desired

norms, rules or procedures to students. While not a perfect method a good guideline to

go with is that these artifacts relate to management techniques that students are aware are

management techniques without someone telling explaining it to them. I will give each

artifact a short name to more easily refer to them: a photo of written instructions and

questions on a whiteboard from an epistemology class Knowers, a copy of the syllabus


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from a life science class Syllabus, a photo of The Wheel of Death from a U. S.

History class Wheel and a photo of different slides that appear in a computer program

that tends to pacify rowdy English learners in a Read 180 class Poster.

The next list is of artifacts that indirectly contribute to establishing classroom

norms and managing behavior. Something about them led me to believe they affected the

environment of the classroom, which in turn had some effect on student behavior, or were

placed there to do so by the teacher. This category would include things like encouraging

posters (but none with rules or procedures on them), seating arrangements or the way the

teacher greets students as they enter the classroom. There are two artifacts in this

category: a photo of original abstract paintings made by the teacher that were hung in the

back of the room, I call it Paintings and a copy of A Skeptical Manifesto from the

website ofSkeptic Magazine that I call Manifesto. Both of these artifacts were acquired

in or due to observations of the epistemology class Knowers is from.

Part 1: Direct Attempts

Knowers


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The class from which I took Knowers involved a lot of group discussion without

coercion. Students were not cold called to give answers but instead were simply asked to

raise their hand if they had anything to say. Teachers often consider this a bad method of

getting student participation. What if no one raises their hands? they might say.

Undoubtedly many teachers who would say that have tried an entirely voluntary system

of getting student participation and found that students would refuse to raise their hands.

Even questions that involve lower level thinking like What does the second paragraph

on the page say? can bring zero volunteers even though any student who is literate

knows the answer if students do not feel like participating.

It is counterintuitive then that the kinds of questions written on the board that

Knowers displays are very open ended and involve higher level thinking. These are

questions that many adults would have trouble answering. The question Is there a

difference between believing something and knowing something? would produce hours

of hot debate in a graduate school class and the question What is truth? has, to my

knowledge, never been satisfactorily answered by anyone ever. Is this class just some

sort of exception to the rule? How does the teacher get away with asking for volunteers?

One would expect from a class like this to see the, now all too familiar when taking

teaching classes, scene from Ferris Buellers Day Offwhere the teacher is attempting to

get student participation while explaining the Laffer curve and is failing completely. Yet

while observing the class I noticed that there was no lack of student participation.

While it is possible that this class is simply a fluke, the teacher has somehow

acquired the students sympathy or only students who want to participate choose this

class one possible area of inquiry is what kinds of questions stimulate students thinking


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and encourage them to participate in class. I had believed through intuition that students

shy away from open ended questions because they seem so complex. Maybe the opposite

is true. Students shy away from simple questions because they are boring and are

stimulated by open ended, complex questions because they are interesting. I remember

teachers asking open ended questions in school but do not remember how successful they

were at getting students to participate in answering them out loud in front of the class.

My only memories are coming from a family of engineers who refuse to participate in

discussions around complex questions and prefer questions with simple, obvious answers

to which everyone, given a certain proficiency level, will come up with the same answer.

Perhaps this data set is skewed and not representative of most students in school, still

though I would like to know how to stimulate the engineers in classrooms too.

Knowers is interesting to me because it represents a paradigm shift in my personal

thoughts on students willingness to answer complex questions, an optimistic example of

the nature of student curiosity in school (as in students actually are curious about class

material) and a failing in the general belief that student participation must be coerced

through cold calling. This artifact shows that it is possible to have a class with successful

student participation that relies on the natural curiosity found within students.

Syllabus


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My next direct norm-setting artifact is the syllabus for a life science class. Two

things about this syllabus made me want to get a copy of it. One has to do with

something I observed occur in the class when the teacher was reading the syllabus with

the students on the first day, the second has to do with the content of the syllabus. They

lead me to wonder how upfront a teacher should be about his own shortcomings with his

students (when does it garner trust and sympathy and when is it demoralizing?) and what

sorts of things can change a students attitude about class.

In the syllabus the teacher admitted to the class that he tends to lose work. There

is a section in the syllabus that says DO NOT THROW ANYTHING AWAY UNTIL I

SAY! The statement is followed by a short paragraph that explains it which includes the

following sentences: Everyone makes mistakesincluding me. If a grade is entered

incorrectly you can show me the evidence. There are parts of the syllabus students and

their parents are required to initial to show that they have read it so this document is

written for the students andtheir parents. The rationale the teacher gave for the sentence

in all caps was that he loses student work every year and students will want to hang on to

their work to prove that they did it when he does. His exact statement was I will lose

your work. This is an amazing confession for a teacher to give to his students. While it

is nice to see a teacher admit he may lose work (I had teachers growing up who would

lose work, refuse to admit it and give students lower grades because of it) it seems like it

opens up students asserting that he lost their work that they just did not do using his

confession as evidence against him. His warning to them to keep all their work may

come off as an attempt to make his students do his job for him by keeping track of their

work instead of encouraging them to take responsibility for their own grades and


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encourage teamwork where they take into consideration each others shortcomings as he

seems to intend it to do. I should note that I am not accusing the teacher of doing this,

simply noting a possible interpretation that students and their parents may have after

reading his syllabus.

In contrast to my opinion the teacher has been doing this for years. Either he is

failing to learn from his mistake or it actually works the way he wants it to. Because the

former interpretation seems excessively uncharitable I decided to assume the latter and

got a copy of the syllabus to see how he phrases his request for students to keep their

work to get them to do it and to maintain his image as a responsible adult to the students

and their parents.

Perhaps it is telling that the syllabus is not as confident as his statement to the

class while reading the syllabus that he will lose their work. The document simply

admits the possibility that he will lose work. Is this statement an exaggeration he made in

the heat of public speaking? Is it in response to students who did not take his request

seriously last year? Is it simply that he wants his students to hear this but not their

parents who might file complaints? There may be a certain dynamic between teacher and

student that allows them to be more forthcoming that the dynamic between teacher and

parent. When he prepared the documents to be read by parents this teacher may have

taken that into consideration.

The teacher acknowledges that everyone makes mistakes. His request that

students keep their work to make up for his own shortcomings comes with a universal

admonishment of every human beings fallibility. In adding that statement to his request

he is taking the focus off of himself and putting culpability for lost work on a quality all


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people have including the students. The statement could just as easily have been written

Remember that everyone makes mistakes. You make mistakes. I make mistakes. You

should keep all your work to be prepared for the times when I make a mistake and forget

to enter your grade in the books. This Were-Not-So-Different approach to confession

may get students on board with his decision to make them put in the effort to keep their

work for him and not write him off as lazy or incompetent.

Students benefit from keeping their work as well in this class. The teacher

provides students with two rationales that focus on the benefits to students. One involves

a natural benefit. Students who keep tests and quizzes have the ability to practice their

metacognitive skills and figure out what they need to study more. After the confession

part of the paragraph in the syllabus the teacher writes Furthermore, if you did poorly on

an exam, keep it and learn from your mistakes!!!!!! In other words, keeping

assignments has the natural benefit of improving your test scores by helping you study.

The other benefit mentioned is artificial. The teacher writes I like to award extra credit

for keeping assignments. Students are not more willing to go along with the teachers

request because he will reward them for it. In listing these benefits to the students the

teacher is providing additional reasons a student ought to keep their work besides his

potential for losing it. Therefore he has other reasons to fall back on if his own

shortcoming is an unconvincing rationale to the students.

The syllabus also interested me because of the change in behavior I saw from one

student in the class, who I call Cheryl, when the teacher started reading it to them. She

had come into class late and had a negative interaction with the teacher to the point where

he told her to stay after class to talk to him. From then on she had done two things that


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were geared specifically to disrupt class. One was making a loud noise while the teacher

was talking and the other was refusing to share piece of paper with a student next to her.

While it is possible that there were separate causes for her behavior the most

parsimonious explanation is that she was upset at the teacher and intentionally trying to

be disruptive.

Her change in behavior started when the teacher was going over the syllabus. On

the page where he admitted his penchant for losing assignments (but before he read the

text) he asked the students what the most important thing on the page was. While most

students had simply been shouting out at that point Cheryl raised her hand. She said that

she thought the most important thing was the Final Exam, probably because on the tests

and assignments layout it was worth the most points. The answer the teacher had in mind

was the statement about not throwing work away. Still, the fact that Cheryl raised her

hand and attempted to answer the question (her voice did not sound ironic or sarcastic

when she answered, it sounded sincere) seemed either like a peace offering or simply that

she had forgotten that she was supposed to resist the teachers attempt to have a

functioning class. This behavior was only noticeable after the syllabus was shown. It

seems unlikely that something as mundane as a syllabus can have an effect on student

behavior but I wanted to get a copy of it anyway.

Wheel


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Another artifact that had a direct relationship to norm setting or classroom culture

building is Wheel. This is a circular piece of cardboard divided into sections like a pie

chart. Each section has a cartoon illustrating some sort of disciplinary action. The

varieties are: bring food for everyone, wear a dress and do a fashion show, push-ups,

write standards, detention, sit quietly in the corner the entire period, detention and

teachers choice. There is a spinner attached to it that students who are in trouble can use

to randomly determine their punishment. The idea of alternative punishments when

detention and suspension are ineffective interests me. Many students practically live in

detention and do not seem to mind while suspension seems completely ineffective (if the

student hates being at school I cannot imagine why he would regard not being allowed to

go punishment).


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Wheel uses public shaming as a disciplinary tool. Students spin the wheel in front

of the entire class and must accept the punishment the spinner lands on. Besides ethical

concerns about intentionally embarrassing students in front of their peers and having a

disciplinary method that is fun enough to create an incentive for the teacher to use it I

was skeptical about the effectiveness of Wheel. Will there be students who enjoy the

attention who will intentionally break the rules so they have a chance to spin for the fun

of it? I can imagine myself in high school enjoying performing the fashion show or

doing push-ups to impress the girls in class. I asked the teacher about it and she said that

the main reason she adopted Wheel was because detention was ineffective at

discouraging tardiness. Perhaps she had other discipline methods for more severe rule

infractions.

About one month later I observed a class session where the teacher used the wheel

to discipline a student who ridiculed another one. The student got teachers choice and

she made him write standards. While one student in class tried to draw attention to the

event most students simply ignored it, continuing to do their group work. The student

who had to write standards was considerably annoyed. He had a stunned look on his face

that he had to spin a wheel for punishment. Perhaps it seemed very arbitrary to him. A

teacher should not base discipline entirely off of what students want (that goes against the

point of it after all) but there is only so far a teacher can push a student before they blow

up in class and turn what would normally be a minor incident into a major one.

Is Wheel an example of clever alternative discipline or proof that diverging from

detention is a bad idea? I only observed one instance of it being put into practice and it

did not seem to antagonize the student more than publicly shame him. Perhaps that one


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instance was poorly executed or had positive (from the teachers perspective) effects on

the student I did not notice. Still, I am interested in things teachers do to make their class

unique so I decided to take a photo of Wheel for reference.

Poster

The final direct artifact is Poster which was taken from a Read 180 class. What I

was really interested in was the computer program students were using. The computer

program showed students slides with letters on them and pictures of things that use the

sound of that letter. It reminded me of visuals seen on childrens television shows like

Sesame Street or The Electric Company. They wear earphones and hear the words said

out loud. The poster is a picture of the slides the computer programs show the students, I


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thought it would show up better than photographing the computer screen and I did not

want to buy the software.

There was one student I was watching (who I called Vance) in class who had very

disruptive behavior. He would pick on other students, shout things at the teacher and

refuse to do his work. The routine of a Read 180 class is for students to switch between

three stations. One involves writing, one reading and one the computer. Vances

behavior issues ended when he got to the computer. He kept his headphones on and

watched the screen, clicking when prompted to. Why did a computer program that

appeared oriented to children hold his attention so well? The possible answers I can

think of are that he is a kinesthetic learner who is only interested in learning when he is

interacting with it, the computer program is very simple and allows him to zone out so

that his mind is not active enough to find ways to be disruptive or he really enjoys using

computers so his behavior in the other stations is designed to show how the computer

program is the only thing he wants to do. I observed Vance while at the reading station

and though his behavior was disruptive he was smiling and asking questions about the

reading. These are signs that he is enjoying himself so I doubt he is maneuvering toward

more computer use, nor does he seem very interested in zoning out.

I took Poster because I wanted to see if there was something about the visuals that

could have changed Vances behavior. The conclusion I drew, however, from watching

the visuals and observing his behavior in another station was that it was the fact that the

computer involved all learning modalities and constantly kept him busy.

Part 2: Indirect Attempts


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All of the previous artifacts involved some sort of direct attempt to set classroom

norms or maintain control. Generally they involve giving direct instructions, keeping

students occupied or disciplining them. While there will probably be situations in every

classroom where the direct approach is necessary I wondered what sort of indirect

methods there were that teachers could use. In what ways can they put students in the

frame of mind they want them in? How do they guide students to complying with rules

without threats? I took the following artifacts because I either observed an effect they

had on students or believe they were an attempt by the teacher (either conscious or

unconscious) to indirectly affect the class environment.

Paintings


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As I mentioned when describing Knowers in this class the teacher was able to

make students feel very comfortable sharing deep thoughts. I decided to examine the

classroom decorations and thought it was interesting that the teacher displays original

artwork. Could it be that she is simply vein and wants to show her talents off to her

students? A more favorable interpretation is that it somehow aids the students learning.

It could be something she communicates to the students in sharing her work or it could be

something about the paintings themselves. I asked the teacher why she put the art up and

she simply said she liked it in the class. Of course, she may be elusive about why she put

it up, afraid that the spell it casts over students may be broken if they find out about it, or

she could be unaware of the effect it has on her class.

Perhaps sharing her artistic talents with her students contributes to an

environment where students are open to the level of sharing necessary for her teaching

methods. She shares something of hers with her students to get them to share about

themselves. Students learn to trust the teacher, who has opened up to them with her art,

so they feel comfortable enough to think and share in the class. The possible rationale for

the paintings that has to do with the content is the affect of their color. According to an

article in The Seattle Times Blue streetlights believed to prevent suicides street crime

Japanese subways have found that adding blue lights to their subway system decreases

crime and suicide. Companies throughout Japan are changing to blue lights and finding

they result in less crime. The effect has also been observed with Glasgow streetlights.

Does the blue in the paintings have a calming effect on students so they feel more

comfortable?

Manifesto


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The following is an excerpt from The Skeptical Manifesto which quotes from

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of

Our Time by Michael Shermer:

The final artifact I collected did not come from inside any classroom. It is a

resource that is relevant to a topic that got brought up in class discussion. In class

A Skeptical Manifesto

ON THE OPENING PAGE of the splendid little book, To Know a Fly, biologist Vincent Dethier

makes this humorous observation of how children grow up to become scientists:

Although small children have taboos against stepping on ants because such actions are said

to bring on rain, there has never seemed to be a taboo against pulling off the legs or wings

of flies. Most children eventually outgrow this behavior. Those who do not either come to a

bad end or become biologists (1962, p. 2).

The same could be said of skepticism. In their early years children are knowledge junkies,

questioning everything in their view, though exhibiting little skepticism. Most never learn to

distinguish between inquisitiveness and credulity. Those who do either come to a bad end or

become professional skeptics.

But what does it mean to be skeptical? Skepticism has a long historical tradition dating back to

ancient Greece when Socrates observed: All I know is that I know nothing. But this is not a

practical position to take. Modern skepticism is embodied in the scientific method, that involvesgathering data to formulate and test naturalistic explanations for natural phenomena. A claim

becomes factual when it is confirmed to such an extent it would be reasonable to offer temporary

agreement. But all facts in science are provisional and subject to challenge, and therefore

skepticism is a method leading to provisional conclusions. Some claims, such as water dowsing,

ESP, and creationism, have been tested (and failed the tests) often enough that we can

provisionally conclude that they are false. Other claims, such as hypnosis and chaos theory, have

been tested but results are inconclusive so we must continue formulating and testing hypotheses

and theories until we can reach a provisional conclusion. The key to skepticism is to continuously

and vigorously apply the methods of science to navigate the treacherous straits between know

nothing skepticism and anything goes credulity. This manifesto a statement of purpose of

sorts explores these themes further.


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students had already done a quickwrite about knowledge vs. belief (shown in Knowers)

and then shared their ideas with the class. Unlike other instances I observed in other

classes where students share in partners and groups before anything is brought up with

the class (in order to make them more comfortable sharing their ideas with a large group)

students were sharing immediately after they came up with their ideas. One girl toward

the front of the class, I call her Sophie, took the position that there is a difference between

belief and knowledge. An example she gave was I dont believe my best friend is not a

psychopath, but I dont know shes not. When she gave her viewpoint she identified

herself as a skeptic.

Another student, Kyle, raised his hand, waited to be called on and then addressed

Sophie directly, not the teacher like all the other students were doing. He said, Do you

really believe that? The way he stressed the word really indicated that he was

annoyed at her statement. Something she said upset him so that he looked directly at her

and did not converse through the teacher the way the other students did. Also, his hand

went up for the first time that class period immediately after Sophie made her statement.

One girl labeled herself as a skeptic. I was unable to figure out if she meant that

term in general or if she meant that she was part of the skeptical community (the class

discusses philosophy, particularly epistemology). I had heard her use an advanced phrase

personal continuity to describe how she conceived of her own identity so I figured she

chose her words carefully. I decided to go to Skeptic Magazines website and

downloaded an article to use as a resource to understand diverse beliefs of students in

class and how the beliefs of the communities they belong to enter the class and affect

discussion. Perhaps a teacher should familiarize themselves with the various belief


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systems of their students in order to be prepared for the type of concepts that come up in

discussion.

Of the two kinds of artifacts I collected the hardest to interpret was the indirect

ones. Coming up with the likely effect required a lot of abductive reasoning which relies

too much on the limits of the possible explanations I can think of. The direct artifacts

have the funneling effect of their obvious reasons that helps narrow down the possible

explanations, the indirect ones are much more open ended and require more creativity.

Final Question

Because there is so much input that goes into the interactions that form classroom

culture it sometimes feels like an overwhelming element to deal with. There is a lot of

uncertainty a teacher may deal with planning on how they want to establish their norms

because of the complex nature of understanding what effect, if any, classroom

management can have on the culture or vise versa. Because of this my driving question

is: What is the relationship between classroom culture and classroom management and to

what extent, if any, can a teacher influence and predict classroom culture?

med chapter 1 rough draft

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